Rape And Pillage Poem by gershon hepner

“There’s no miraculous escape–
Shechem’s synonymous with rape, ”
they told their father, in his camp
where he sat sweating, hands cold, damp,
worried for his daughter Dinah…..
days since last time he had seen her.
Left home, each leg in a stocking
sleek and black, while still more shocking
her sensuous curves, which unsubdued
proclaimed their shapely magnitude.
The wrap she wore was made of mink,
a Pepto-Bismol shade of pink;
conspicuous as Tower Eiffel
she wished to be, or Christmas trifle.

She’d said she only wished to stop
some minutes there, perhaps to shop
for some small trinkets as a gift
for Leah, since it might uplift
her mother’s spirits. She felt down
while living nearby this strange town,
signs not Hebrew, Aramaic,
town that seemed just as Passaic
might seem to some Manhattanite
who likes to drink and dance all night,
and check the restaurants and bars,
not counting sheep in bed, or stars.

“Sure, find your mother something nice, ”
he told her. “Be back in a trice! ”
she said, and then put on a skirt
both short and tight, but not a word
came from his mouth, although he stared……
for just about one child he cared,
(as he cared only for one wife,
young Joseph, Benjamin was not
yet born) the son whom he had shared
with Rachel, joined as in a knot,
lady of a loving laird.

That’s how it started, all the strife
between the Jews and Arabs––Dinah,
being of Shechem the wife
could not have stopped it, Shechem keener
on having quickie flings in Nablus
than relations that were steady:
though the young girl looked quite fabulous
he for marriage was unready.

Maybe she heard wedding bells,
but to party it takes two;
intermarriage rarely sells
and succeeds for very few.
Brothers knew this, she did not…..
Jacob sat upon a fence.
If your daughter’s really hot
and you have some common sense
you will take her to the store,
not let her walk there alone.
“Should our sister be a whore? ”
brothers asked him with a moan.

Was he bothered by the sabers
used to circumcise by neighbors
who after they had circumcized
themselves by brothers were surprised?
Did he fear that all their pillage
would harm them all in their small village,
because in numbers they were few?
To understand him here’s a clue.
Next thing was that he removed
all the gods that they had taken
from Shechem, which clearly proved
all the parties were mistaken:
father since he sat on fences,
brothers since they took strange gods
once they’d broken through defenses.
Peas unlike can’t share same pods.

Revised 12/9/05